Book Group: Your views on the October book, 'The Plot against America' by Philip Roth

You'd have thought so, but you'd be wrong. Darlings, where are you? I come back to work after a little spot of bother on the health front to find that some of our usual respondents seem to have avoided this book. There is still, of course, a highly intelligent coterie of Roth-watchers, and, luckily for me, it's a voluble one.

It didn't start on the most positive of notes. "I have heard good things about Philip Roth as an author" said Mo245, "but I really don't like history rewrites". She was "not looking forward to this one" and felt that the "fascism takes over the US" version had been "just about done to death". "Why" she lamented "does no one ever write one where Hitler was killed by a car accident as a kid?" What a good idea, Mo and why don't you write it? You could pack him off to a boarding school and make him into a wizard.

Ramblingsid was thrilled to have got the book half price. He couldn't remember reading "that many history re-write books", but had vague memories of a Kingsley Amis novel "set in a modern world where the Reformation had never taken place". Meanwhile, jellyfeeble was already half-way through. But she was struggling with the weird interface between history and fiction. Not real history, obviously, but, in a reversal of the norm, "the real names of Roth's family" and "the fictional account of Lindbergh's presidency." She was also struggling with the prose. "I cannot read this book in bed" she moaned.

LJ2026 had also struggled at first. "I found the portrayal of history that, by a quirk of fate may have happened, quite hard to follow," he confided, "particularly as the style of writing was fairly dense." Some of the conversations were "a bit like personal party political broadcasts," but then the book "developed well". His patience was tested, however, by the "improbable events" surrounding Lindbergh's disappearance and the kidnapping of his son. Roth had "gone a bit too far and spoilt it". He was also disappointed by the ending, or rather the lack of it: "The last chapter seemed to peter out."

Mo was, by this time, ready for an apology. "Okay, so I was wrong" , she confessed. "I can now understand why this piece of 'revisionism' was written. The sense of creeping fear which underlies the family throughout the book is recognisable in many minority groups across the world now, but if the 'current affairs' version were to be told, very few would show any interest."

She agreed that "the final twists in the story" were " far-fetched and improbable", but were they, she wondered, any more improbable than "the continuing tacit acceptance by the world of the Jangoweed [I think she meant the janjaweed] being allowed to by now almost wipe out the native tribespeople of Darfur"? Attagirl! She'll make an Indy columnist yet. Like LJ2026, however, she had a problem with the ending. She found it hard to believe that "once all these passions had been aroused, and military means put into action" that it could have been called off "in such a straightforward manner". Was this done, she wondered, "purely for a US market?"

Suddenly, there was a new guest at the table. "I thought this was a super book" said OliviaD, sounding just a touch like the Vicar of Dibley. She loved the voice of the main narrator, thought the post-script of "true" events was a "great idea" and the rewriting of history "utterly convincing". She had read two books since but they were "bland in comparision". She would "definitely read another Roth."

The final contribution was from HaydenT. He was "fascinated" as soon as he read the blurb for the book. Like Olivia, he thought the voice of the narrator was "beautifully judged", with the dual adult-child perspective giving "extra depth". He has "resolved to read more Philip Roth".

Actually, the final, final contribution this month was from LJ2026. " I'm sorry you've been poorly," he wrote in response to my desperate plea for more contributions, "and hope you're feeling better." What a sweetie! And what a towering intellect. Clearly, he wins the prize for the most intelligent contribution.

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